1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a temperature fuse protection device which uses a hot melt metal for rivet coupling two separate terminals in a circuit for making the two terminals to be electrically-connected to the circuit, whereby the hot melt metal will break under heating and elevated temperature, and the circuit will become at the “OFF” status.
2. The Prior Arts
Electricity has become a must in modern society, which has surrounded all our lives. IT industry, homes, transportation, education, entertainment, etc, are all heavily dependent on electricity. Therefore, the safe usage of electricity has become more and more vital for people.
Generally speaking, the overall circuit is set with a main switch generally at the “ON” status in electric power plant. During an electrical overloading, short-circuiting, or high circuit temperature event, the fuse is melted or the circuit breaker is jumped to protect the safety of the electricity system.
In addition, there are several branch circuits in the overall circuit and have additional switches for controlling the respective circuits at the “ON” or “OFF” status. To strengthen the safety during operation, many switches also possess the capability of automatically jumping offline when an overloading or high circuit temperature event has occurred to prevent the risk of electrical fire due to the possible inability to react in time of the fuse or circuit breaker.
Besides the use of fuses, switches, or circuit breakers in overall circuits and the branch circuits mentioned above for circuit protection when overloading has occurred, some individual electrical products such as high-priced electronic products, data processing equipments, or electric heating appliances are provided with temperature sensing circuit breaker for circuit protection. For the above devices, when the overall circuit is overloaded or the circuit temperature is too high, the power will shut off by means of immediate temperature sensing such that the individual electric, electronic, product or equipment is protected and is saved from destruction, and thus could prevent overloading or high circuit temperature from occurring in the branch circuits to the extent that the other electric equipments are made unable to operate in the overall circuit.
A traditional temperature sensing circuit breaker installed on individual electronic products is of the following structure (shown in FIGS. 1 and 2): it has a contact spring 201, which is of a curved form, and will deform its shape to bend in an opposite direction from original and is thereby deflected when heated. One end of the contact spring 201 is an attachment assembly formed with a first terminal 202. And the other end of the contact spring 201 is a free end, and the free end assembly is formed with a first conduction point 203. An attachment assembly at a second terminal 204 is formed with a second conduction point 205, which is in correspondence with the first conduction point 203. When in use, the contact spring 201 bends towards the second terminal 204 to make the first conduction point 203 at the free end of the contact spring 201 to contact the second conduction point 205 of the second terminal so that the circuit is connected (shown in FIG. 1). When an electric overloading occurs, the contact spring 201 will deform its shape to bend in an opposite direction from original and is thereby deflected due to the high temperature, thus making the first conduction point 203 at the free end of the contact spring 201 to separate from the second conduction point 205, whereby resulting in the circuit being at an “OFF” status, as illustrated in FIG. 2, to be able to prevent the electric product from being destroyed. However, the traditional temperature sensing circuit breaker has several shortcomings as follows:    (a) During the fabrication of the contact spring 201, it is impossible to ensure that every contact spring 201 has the same thickness, degree of curvature, and structural characteristics; hence, the reaction temperature at which the contact spring 201 to bend in an opposite direction from original in a deflecting manner due to the high temperature is difficult to control, and the reaction temperature tolerance is substantially large.    (b) The acuity or degree of deformation of the contact spring when bending in the opposite direction in a deflecting manner as caused by the high temperature is relatively low, and cannot protect the electronic products in time from damage during an instantaneous electrical overloading event.    (c) The contact spring 201 does not always deform as desired to trigger the protection mechanism during an instantaneous electrical overloading event because it may not have bent/deflected fully or deflected in time, and has remained in a electrical conductive state with the terminals so that high circuit temperature leading to dangerous operating conditions for the individual electronic product and the entire circuit.    (d) When the overloading occurs, the contact spring 201 could bend or deflect partially to jump when it is hot and then to reconnect the circuit again when the contact spring temperature is lowered. The repeated turning “ON” and “OFF” is easy to cause sparks and thus dangers. Because of the repeated turning “ON” and “OFF” of the electrical power circuit, the electronic and electrical devices are to experience unstable electrical current, thus leading to device crashing or inability to operate normally, reduction of usage lifespan, and even possibly complete failure.